


One Step At A Time

by DemonAngelSakina



Series: Il Dimenticato (The Forgotten) [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Background Manipulation of Events, Gen, I am not kidding on that, Morally Ambiguous Character, RP-Related, Zombie Servants, Zombies, author needs coffee, horror-lite, necromancer - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-27
Updated: 2020-02-27
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:08:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22929979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DemonAngelSakina/pseuds/DemonAngelSakina
Summary: " Her initial plan may have failed...but once she gathered her kin to her side, well...it was only a matter of time before everything, eventually, went exactly according to plan and Mother was free. "
Series: Il Dimenticato (The Forgotten) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1883197
Kudos: 4





	One Step At A Time

_'Idiota.'_

The sharp clack of heeled boots on stonework echoed through the dark hallways of the castle ruins--accompanied by the soft sound of swaying leather from the woman's sleeveless long coat. Fury bloomed from her with every rapid step--pale fists clenched so tightly that her knuckles were as white as bleached bone--but her face betrayed none of the rage and hatred consuming her heart. Kohl-lined, cat-like green eyes glared into the abyss-like darkness surrounding her as she cut a swift path down the hallways--ignoring the occasional quiet moan, groan, or crack of bone coming from within the doorless rooms and hallways that she passed.

One job. Her eldest cousin had only one nigh-vitally important job and had utterly ruined it.

Years--no decades...centuries even--of planning had gone simply off-the-rails just because her cousin had failed to break the Laws of Life and Death and open the Rift. It would have all been perfect--the culmination the centuries of manipulation and power plays of dozens of individuals: her cousin had all of the pieces right in front of her--the desire and the skill to resurrect three who had died before their times, the three souls to exchange for the three whom she sought to revive, a Philosopher's Stone created from the soul of a corrupted False God...  
The woman breathed out sharply--she had even given her dear, eldest cousin everything related to necromancy that the Alchemist could have possibly needed for this entire thing. It was perfect!

And then HE had come back.

HE had come back and gotten into her dear cousin's head for the second time--the second time after the False Death had the absolute gall to seduce then abandon her eldest cousin for nothing!--and then HE had ruined everything.

Oh, she was happy, deliriously so, that her eldest cousin had gotten her fondest wish--the three souls had been revived, and they were revived stronger--but that did not change that the Laws were still fully in place, the Rift was still sealed as tightly as a sarcophagus, and the bastard False Gods and Goddesses were still dominating the world that they had stolen, with unflinching iron claws.  
It did not change the fact that the entire plan had been ruined...and that Mother was still trapped within her prison.

She shook her head in frustration--her hip-length braids swaying harshly from the sudden movement--as she resisted the urge to pick up some ruined bit of glassware or pottery and throw it against a wall.

_'Damn it all. We were so close. If only that False Death had not stuck his muzzle where it did not belong.'_

She knew that she was not the only one furious over this--the rest of Mother's children, the ones who had awakened to the lies of the False Gods...all of them were livid in their own ways. Some of them have been planning and working on this for millennia longer than she had been alive. She half expected them to all be angry with her for her cousin's failure to complete the task that she, herself, had put before the Alchemist...but none had expressed fury with her--only frustration that they needed to alter the plan yet again because the False Gods had, once more, escaped their Fate by the skin of their teeth.

But that False God...that False God...he disgusted her--everything about him.  
It disgusted and infuriated her that HE had the sheer audacity to behave as if he were owed something--as if HE deserved the privilege of being anywhere near a member of her kin--just because HE 'came back'. HE had even dared to steal a feed from her cousin upon his return and then, after ruining all of her hard work, had tried to poison her cousin and turn the Alchemist into a Thrall--a worthless Thrall!--by trying to trick her dear cousin into drinking a False God's blood.  
Thank Mother that her cousin had the sense, even in her own madness, to recognize the danger of such folly and had refused.

She stopped at one of the tall walls of stained-glass windows--the moonlight diffusing the darkness of the chamber with soft spots of color. 

As furious as she was, she could not bring herself to hate her cousin--it was not the Alchemist's fault that she had, yet again, been swayed by the lies of love from a False God who knew all too well how to manipulate the broken one so well. It was not her dear eldest cousin's fault that she was not one of the Awakened--she could not blame her cousin for not knowing Mother, and she could never be truly angry with her for being blind to the Truth. If anything, she was angry over how a member of her kin was being enslaved by a False God...she was angry on behalf of her dear cousin and, more so, at the situation itself.  
All that she could do now was try to adjust the plan as needed and hope that, in time, maybe she could even convince the Alchemist to realize how she was being manipulated by the False God and, finally, bring her dear cousin to Mother's side.  
_'If I can just get her to see that Death does not love her--that he is using her all over again--then Dante will leave him and aid me in freeing Mother.'_

The woman glanced towards the window in thought, unfurling her fists and examining the array of silver rings decorating her hands as she contemplated what to do next--her second-eldest cousin was aware of the Truth, yet she was not nearly as active in trying to free Mother...but perhaps she could sway the Huntress in time as well. After all, the Huntress seemed to, at the least, be rather open to the idea if it meant that someone could finally give her back her mortal soul from the depths of Hell. It could be doable...and at least one of the Elders was Hellborn--she would need to discuss matters with them in secret.  
_'If anything, having 'Krov' at our side fully would be welcome. Her power and brutality could make short work of any slave of the False Gods who would try to stop us.'_

Her third-eldest cousin...he was much like her second, but held no loyalty to anyone but what remained of them and to the trio of humans that he had kept close to him--shielding the three weaker individuals with his own willingness to kill and manipulate the world at large into seeing only what he wanted anyone to see. In time, she imagined that the Seducer would fully join the Awakened at Mother's side, but she had no idea of how much time it would take for him to make his choice--for him to make the right choice...the only choice.  
Perhaps, if there were a way to allow the human in the wheelchair--the one whom she knew that her cousin adored--to rise and walk once more, the Seducer would be swayed to their cause in a heartbeat.  
_'I should look into that...aiding the human in walking may be just that push that Antony needs.'_

Her fourth-eldest cousin and his little sister--oh, how she treasured them both even if she rarely had the time to go and visit the pair--were, sadly, unaware of Mother...but she knew that if she could merely bend the Thief's ear for a moment, that he might see things from her perspective and, when he joined Mother, his sister would follow suit. It would take little effort on her part...but she would need to make certain that he would trust her on this matter--that would be the challenge in the end as the Thief was quite paranoid despite his laziness and seeming apathy towards the world. The woman was, however, certain that--with the proper words--she would succeed in drawing him to Mother's side.  
_'After all...Ciro suffered so very much in the Rite--for himself and for Gabriella--that, surely, he would appreciate how Mother will reward him as repayment for the pain that the False Gods allowed the clan to force him to undergo.'_

If all of the Dimenticato were standing together for Mother...with all of their skills...  
Even the lone Necromancer born of a forgotten branch family.

Her fury melted at that thought--he was so unlike them...human save for his magick, the vampiric curse having missed his line all together it seemed...and, even better than the great magick ability he possessed--she'd heard wonderful things from her familiars of the pack of skeletal ghost hounds that this forgotten cousin had at his disposal--he was free of their deceased clan of nightmares. He had fled his own branch family and was currently tucked away in the North, safe within the castle walls of one of Mother's Awakened.  
It would be easy to bring him to Mother's side--perhaps even easier than it would be to bring the rest of her cousins in close.  
_'What was his name that the Elder told me? 'Corbeau'? Oh, Mother would adore and cherish him--of that I am certain.'_

She had to send one of her most recent experimental subjects to eradicate the branch family of course--such an easy thing to twist a madman even further so that he sacrificed his entire bloodline and himself in a false blood magick ritual--since she doubted that Mother would have any manner of use for the demented murderers and slavers that branch line had favored producing. If anything, pruning away the entirety of that family line had been a fantastic test of her experiment's capabilities in serving Mother--the mutilated Reaper Spirit had served its task, at that time, splendidly.  
Furthermore, it was proof that--should she capture more of the beasts to work on--that she could very well have quite the efficient army of her own at her disposal that could rival those commanded by the Elders.

A soft noise from the darkness drew her attention--a decaying corpse shambling passed as it dusted the remnants of furnishings that had once been a testament to the wealth of whomever had owned the castle centuries ago. She raised a dark brow in idle curiosity as she watched the corpse begin to slowly wipe away the dust and grime from a partially destroyed statue of some woman from a bygone era.  
The soulless body groaned softly--soon joined by two more corpses in similar, if not different stages, of decay as the first. One set about to clean the windows at her other side, while the second lowered itself to the floor and began to scrub at the flat stones.

"Do make certain that you dry what you wash this time, won't you?" She said as she stepped forward to continue on her way--leaving the trio of black-coated corpses to their chores. "Puddles only damage the stone further."

The woman continued down the hallway--ignoring all of the other corpses and skeletons going about their duties in maintaining the expanse of ruins that she called her home. She bypassed the soulless suits of armor standing watch at every door and branching hallway--her eyes focused only ahead of her as she began to formulate her next steps: her initial plan may have failed...but once she gathered her kin to her side, well...it was only a matter of time before everything, eventually, went exactly according to plan and Mother was free.

A pair of armors pushed open a matched pair of heavy oaken doors at the end of the hallways--the armors returning to their prior positions as she stalked into the expansive library of the castle--first things first: she had to bring all of her kin to her side and the easiest would be to introduce herself to her lost cousin...after that, well, one step at a time.

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little something that's been in my head for a while.  
> Loosely connected to my other RP-related posts--mostly my "Two's Good, Three's Better" series, "Grand Designs" and it's connected pieces--but following a 'twist' where the ending of "Grand Designs" didn't happen in RP form...and from the perspective of a character I like to keep in the dark rather than actively playing as.
> 
> And yes...she is a Necromancer--hence all of the zombies/corpses/ect. that she uses as 'staff'--but is knowledgeable of other schools of magic and had a hand in Dante learning how to use alchemy to resurrect the dead.
> 
> And since I'm sure someone will ask, yes: she has no problem killing someone, reanimating their corpse, and then enslaving said-corpse as a maid/butler/whatever if the mood strikes her. I don't think she even has a concept of morality outside of 'does this best benefit me/my kin' if that counts.


End file.
